An assistant dean at the University of Illinois College of Law in Chicago knowingly inflated grades and LSAT scores for incoming law school classes in an effort to show they had higher credentials, according to a report released today by the university.

The two-month investigation concluded that Paul Pless, the assistant dean of law school admissions, “knowingly and intentionally” miscalculated key data for six years: the class of 2008 along with the classes of 2010 through 2014. The report also found that the law school did not have controls in place to prevent and detect the inaccuracies.

Pless resigned from the university last week after being placed on administrative leave on Sept. 7. An attempt to reach him by phone for comment was unsuccessful.

“On behalf of the University of Illinois College of Law, I wish to apologize to the legal-academic community, our University, our alumni, and our students,” said Bruce Smith, dean of the College of Law in a statement. “The investigation has concluded that a single individual — no longer employed by the college — was responsible for these inaccuracies. The college takes seriously the issue of data integrity.”

The 114-page report was the culmination of an investigation that began Aug. 26, following reports of apparent discrepancies in the university’s student-profile data for the class of 2014.

University of Illinois President Michael J. Hogan ordered the investigation, which was led by the university’s ethics officer and chief legal counsel with the assistance of the law firm Jones Day and data-analysis firm Duff & Phelps.

“Numbers were altered specifically, and often just slightly, to meet recruitment goals and ranking targets indicating an attempt to demonstrate that the College of Law brought in an even more highly credentialed class,” said Margaret Daley of Duff & Phelps.

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For the 15 years that they had been in a committed relationship, Brenda Link had wanted to take her partner Lisa’s last name.

In August, it finally happened.

“It was a joyous occasion,” said Brenda Link. “I’m glad that I can sign things and people know we are together and we are a couple.”

Since civil unions became legal in Illinois on June 1, many same-sex couples have taken advantage of the other opportunity the new law created: the ability to walk into a Driver Services Department or Social Security office — rather than a courtroom — to legally take a partner’s name.

Although no one keeps track of name changes specifically related to civil unions, the number of people who sought name changes on their Illinois driver’s licenses from June 1 to Oct. 31 was up to 54,809, compared with 51,707 in the same period two years ago, according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s Department of Driver Services.

And officials at Equality Illinois, a nonprofit advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Illinois, say they have no doubt same-sex couples have fueled the increase.

“It’s definitely something that people are doing,” said Carolyn Staerk, field director for Equality Illinois, who helped to create a how-to guide for changing names after civil unions in response to an influx of inquiries.

For some same-sex couples, reasons for taking a partner’s name are ironically similar to why some women have resisted taking a partner’s name since the women’s movement of the 1970s: It’s about embracing your own identity.

“I kind of felt like we can’t be ignored anymore,” said Lisa Link, who, months later, still beams at the thought of Brenda Link taking her last name. “I never thought how proud I would be to have my wife have my name.”

In other civil unions, the act of taking a partner’s name allows for more traditional values. When Henry Needham Jr. suggested taking the last name of his partner, Trung Tieu, a few weeks after their August civil union ceremony, they looked forward to being viewed as a cohesive unit.

“There are lots of things that happen automatically when you get married that don’t automatically happen when you are in a civil union,” said Henry Tieu, who ordered a self-inking stamp with his and his partner’s last name and address as soon as it was official. “If someone looks at your names it seems like you’re a family.”

To change a name, couples must bring proof of their civil union to a Driver Services office and pay a $5 fee for a corrected license. The Social Security Administration also recognizes an Illinois civil union certificate as proof of a name change for Social Security purposes and will make the switch without a fee, according to Equality Illinois.

Although the U.S. State Department recognizes name changes that have been permitted under state law, some local couples have run into challenges in trying to change the name on their passports.

Christine Kimball Compisi, 30, said she and her partner took care of their name changes in one day for their driver’s licenses and Social Security cards. But their passport name change requests were returned to them and are under review by an attorney.

“You just have to jump into the process and go for it. It’s so new, who knows what you’re going to run into,” said Compisi. “Luckily we’re not flying out of the country any time soon.”

The kinks in the process do bring up sore feelings for some civil union couples, who argue that the civil union law — though a step in the right direction — does not go far enough in giving same-sex partners rights. Though Illinois’ law gives partners the same legal obligations, responsibilities, protections and benefits that state law provides to married couples, the unions are not recognized under federal laws.

“With changing our names, are we settling and saying, ‘Yes, society, we’re OK with just this’?” said Frank Andonoplas, who said he and his partner did not consider changing names after their civil union in June.

Other couples, however, say that, for now, they’re enjoying the name change option, which has never been so easy.

The Links each took a day off of work to facilitate the name change. They brought their paperwork to the state offices nervously, unsure of how they would be received. Happily, they completed the process in minutes.

“It was astonishingly easy,” said Lisa Link. “We were absolutely amazed by how easy it would be.”

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Schoolchildren with potentially fatal food allergies can get help faster because of a new Illinois law.

Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill Monday that allows schools to stock and use epinephrine shots, which deliver medicine to children having severe allergic reactions.

Quinn signed the law at Edison Regional Gifted Center in Chicago, where a 13-year-old girl died last year after having a severe reaction to peanuts.

The most common food allergens are peanuts, milk and shellfish.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined Quinn for the signing.

The law goes into effect immediately. It lets school officials stock EpiPens and administer the shots without fear of liability.

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The League of Women Voters of Illinois filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming new congressional and legislative maps are unconstitutional because they assign voters to districts based on their political views and voting histories.

League President Jan Dorner said her organization decided to sue after looking carefully at the maps and concluding “it was obvious that incumbent politicians did not use objective criteria to draw the new districts.”

New maps are required every 10 years after the census reveals population shifts, and Democrats got to draw the new maps because they control the Illinois Legislature and the governor’s office.

Because of slowing population growth, Illinois now will have 18 U.S. House seats instead of 19. But the new congressional map puts five Republican representatives, including four first-term members, into districts where they must run against other incumbents in 2012. Illinois sent five GOP freshmen to Washington in the 2010 election, including Rep. Bob Dold, who won Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s old seat.

The map also created just one district where Latinos represent the majority — a new 4th Congressional District, now represented by Rep. Luis Gutierrez — although Illinois’ Hispanic population is 32.5 percent.

“It takes competitiveness out of the equation,” Dorner said. “We want an election where the results are not apparent before the campaign begins.”

The 13-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, asks the court to stop the state Board of Elections from implementing the new maps and order the governor and General Assembly “to develop a new process that uses an impartial decision maker or body to propose a redistricting plan” using neutral principals.

Neighboring Iowa employs such a system. Nonpartisan legislative staffers prepare the maps, and they are banned from considering where incumbent lawmakers live when drawing boundary lines. Their only charge is to make the new districts as compact as possible and as equal in population as possible.

Republicans also have sued over Illinois’ new maps, which Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn defended as fair when he signed them into law two months ago.

A lawsuit filed by the Committee for a Fair and Balanced Map, which includes 10 of the 11 Republicans in Illinois’ congressional delegation, claims the new congressional map “blatantly discriminates against Latino and Republican voters.”

The state’s legislative map also lumps Republicans together in new districts and makes other areas friendlier to Democrats.

But Dorner said Democrats and Republicans both have gerrymandered the maps for their own advantage throughout the years and “it needs to stop.” She said elections would be more competitive if the governor and General Assembly would “stay out of the business of picking and choosing the views they want voters to express, hear and receive in the districts where they live and vote.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court has made recent decisions that protect the First Amendment rights of corporations and wealthy candidates, now we are asking the courts to protect the rights of voters,” Dorner said.

Quinn defended the redistricting maps again Tuesday, saying they were drawn after “the most open process Illinois has ever had” that provided ample opportunity for the public to participate.

Some have said there wasn’t enough opportunity for input on the maps, despite three public hearings — two in Chicago and one at the state Capitol. Lawmakers approved the final legislative map just over a week after it was released and voted on the final map for the U.S. House less than 24 hours after it was publicized.

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to impose big fines on parents who let their children remain outside after curfew.

The law goes into effect September 18 and requires kids under 12 to be indoors by 8:30 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For those between the ages of 12 and 16, it’s 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 p.m. on the weekends.

The mayor says stepped up enforcement is part of his strategy to fight crime and save kids.

The mayor passed out information cards early Friday morning on the 95th Street Red Line stop along the Dan Ryan to drive home his point.

Chicago’s curfew law was recently ratified by a 50-0 City Council vote, and now parents will be fined, $500 for a first offence, $1,000 for a second and $1,500 for a third, if their youngsters violate curfew.

“We have passed something to help parents be responsible, make sure that parents can say to their children, ‘This is what the law is,’ so parental responsibility and the law from City Council are aligned,” said Mayor Emanuel.

At a late morning stop to announce funding for faith-based community groups to develop their own skills in fighting crime and getting grant money for their range of programs, the mayor — flanked by his police chief — said other cities have shown steep fines work and curfews are critical to community-based policing.

But West Side resident Lola Chen wasn’t buying a lot of it. She said police need to walk beats, even in tough neighborhoods.

“In the process of not arresting anybody, they’re leaving all the citizens’ lives at risk because the gang people have drugs, and they have guns and baseball bats,” said Chen.

And on the streets near the mayor’s photo op, where playgrounds lay empty as worried parents choose to have their kids play where they can see them, beefed up fines for curfew violations were met with skepticism.

“A kid can get hurt at any time of the day,” said Robert Johnson.

“It’ll really cause more conflict between the authorities and the parents,” said Al White. “That shouldn’t go on like that.”

And there is some support too.

“I think no kids should be outside no later than 9 o’clock,” said Tanya Burns.

Burns said she thinks the fines are not too large.

When police pick up a minor out after curfew, they will try to take the child home but will bring the child into a police station if a parent or guardian can’t be found, and a hearing officer will be able to order the parent or guardian to perform community service instead of paying a fine.

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Beginning next year, victims of sex trafficking in Illinois will have the chance to clear their legal records of convictions related to prostitution.

Senate Bill 1037, sponsored by Sen Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights) and Rep Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) “allows defendants of human trafficking at the time of their prostitution convictions to file a motion to vacate the conviction if the defendant’s participation in the offense was the result of being a victim,” a release from the governor’s office said.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn says the new law gives victims of sex trafficking an opportunity to start over.

“Sex trafficking is a truly reprehensible crime that preys on the most vulnerable. Victims deserve a chance to clear their records and rebuild their lives,” Quinn said to the Chicago Sun-Times.

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Parents have a new set of safe havens if they want to give up newborns anonymously. Thanks to a new law put on the books today, parents can leave babies at police departments of state or private universities or at Illinois State Police district headquarters around the state.

“Every parent wants their child to be raised in a healthy, happy environment,” said Gov. Pat Quinn, who signed the measure into law today at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “Expanding our safe haven laws to include universities and Illinois State Police facilities will help make sure that more parents are able to relinquish infants in a safe and legal way.”

The Quinn administration said no other state in the nation has designated campus police offices as a safe haven for abandoned newborns. The law takes effect immediately.

The new law, sponsored by Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, adds to a growing list of locations where unwanted and unharmed babies can be left without a parent facing prosecution. The safe haven law already allowed parents to leave a child at places like a city’s police station, firehouse or county sheriff’s headquarters. Parents can give up their child anonymously to people who work at these locations without fear of prosecution.

The purpose of the statute is to provide a safe haven for newborns believed to be 30 days old or less. The locations give parents options for leaving their babies and giving them a better chance to live. It’s an attempt to prevent irrational acts that have ended with a parent putting a newborn into a Dumpster or leaving a baby on a front porch on a cold winter’s night.

Since 2001, there have 64 newborns left at safe haven locations, officials said.

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Governor Pat Quinn today signed legislation that will help the far south side of Chicago attract high-tech and medical research investments by creating the Roseland Community Medical District.

Sponsored by Rep. Bob Rita (D-Blue Island) and Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago), House Bill 1888 establishes the Roseland Community Medical District (RCMD). It also creates a commission that will generate a comprehensive economic development plan with the goal of attracting academic institutions, medical research facilities and high-tech businesses to the area.

“We need to use everything in our toolbox to grow our economy and create jobs,” Governor Quinn said. “Keys to our future prosperity are in the high-tech and medical fields, where revolutionary advancements are made every day. This legislation will help ensure that more of those breakthroughs are made in Illinois.”

The RCMD is modeled after the three existing medical districts in Central Chicago, Springfield and East St. Louis. The districts are legal entities that may solicit funds, enter into leases and other contracts, and perform other economic development and maintenance functions. They do not have the power to levy taxes. Once the RCMD commission’s economic plan is approved, the commission will administer the district’s development.

“The communities of the south side of Chicago and the South Suburbs are medically underserved, and this law will allow local health care advocates to take the lead in developing new medical research and treatment facilities for local families,” Rep. Rita said. “With this new medical district, we can strengthen the services that are currently provided by Roseland Community Hospital, as well as develop new facilities to improve the quality of care for our neighborhoods.”

“The creation of this new medical district will revitalize the Roseland Community Hospital and the surrounding area,” Sen. Jones said. “The Roseland Community Medical District will improve the quality of medical services for patients and generate improved medical research by streamlining of the area’s healthcare facilities.”

The Roseland Community Medical District Commission will consist of 12 members, with three each being appointed by the Governor, the mayor of the city of Chicago and the president of the Cook County board. The secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services and directors of the Illinois Departments of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Illinois Department of Public Health will serve as ex-officio members. The law goes into effect immediately.

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Legal Helpers, a Chicago based debt settlement firm, was ordered to Cease and Desist its unlicensed business today by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). The Department also issued a fine of $314,000 – $1,000 for each of the 314 clients it has identified thus far. This is the first disciplinary action taken since the Debt Settlement Act took effect last August.

The order details the experience of one customer: Legal Helpers charged a client (T.G.) an “initial flat fee retainer payment” of $500, and a $50 monthly maintenance fee. In addition, Eclipse, a subcontractor of Legal Helpers, charged a service fee of 15% of the total scheduled debt to be paid in installments commencing immediately upon preparation of the debt resolution plan. Between August 13, 2010, and May 20, 2011, T.G. paid $3,411.92 to Legal Helpers and its subcontractor – $3,121.91 in fees and only $290.01 set aside for the payment of debt. Further, there is evidence that neither Legal Helpers nor its third party assigns settled any of T.G.’s debts.

“The Debt Settlement Act seeks to protect families that are struggling with debt from being preyed upon by companies posing as rescuers,” said Brent Adams, Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation. “The State will move aggressively whenever we learn of the exploitation of financially vulnerable families.”

The Debt Settlement Act includes several consumer protection mechanisms not followed in the case of T.G. The Act prohibits charging an upfront fee except for a one-time enrollment fee of $50. The total payments may not exceed 15% of the amount of money the client saved as a result of the settlement company’s services. Finally, the law states that any contract for debt settlement service that does not comply with the Act shall be treated as void, and may not be enforced by any federal or State court or any other person. Upon notice of a void contract, the debt settlement provider shall remit a refund to the consumer as if the contract had been cancelled.

In addition to operating a debt settlement firm in Illinois without the appropriate debt settlement license, IDFPR learned that despite the name, “Legal Helpers”, the company does not provide legal representation to consumers or otherwise act in an attorney capacity. The person signing contracts with Legal Helper’s clients is not licensed to practice law in Illinois.

A copy of the order is available at IDFPR.com.

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A new law will help protect Illinois’ student athletes from concussions and other brain injuries.

Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill into law today at Chicago’s Soldier Field. It ensures that athletes who receive a concussion will not be allowed to return to play or practice until they are evaluated and receive written permission from a licensed health professional. The law also requires student athletes, their parents and coaches to recognize signs of a concussion. The legislation was sponsored in the Illinois House by Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego).

“We are hopeful that this new law will raise awareness for our youth in Illinois when it comes to these devastating and sometimes fatal head injuries,” Cross said.

Under the new law, school boards must partner with the IHSA to develop clear guidelines and materials to educate coaches, student athletes and parents about concussions. Park districts are encouraged to educate about the dangers of concussions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research indicates that sports are the second leading cause of brain injury in young adults from 15-24 years of age and more than 40 percent of high school athletes returned to play before fully recovering from a concussion.

Quinn, Cross, State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), and Kurt Becker, a member of the championship 1985 Bears team, were on hand for the bill signing. Becker was a strong supporter of the legislation and testified before a House committee on the effects of concussions and other head injuries that can last a lifetime.

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